A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Emperor Yuan Cong

Chapter 1024 Ma Zhou’s message

Changan.

In Xuanyangfang, in the Duke's Mansion of the State of Yan, Wu Yu'e, the wife of the State of Yan, asked someone to kill a chicken and prepare it to be stewed with the yellow-lipped fish maw sent by Erlang from Lingnan to replenish the health of her husband Ma Zhou. busy.

"Madam, a letter from Lingnan,"

"Is it from Erlang?"

"It seems so." said the female steward.

Wu Yu'e put down the fish maw jar in her hand, took the letter and opened it.

After reading the letter, Mrs. Yan Guo burst out laughing, like a flower branch trembling,

"The chicken doesn't need to be killed,"

"what?"

She often goes to her parents' house and her brother's house, and has a lot of contacts.
Of course she is happy that the younger generation can still remember her.

Staying up late is common,
"Why are you so happy, madam?" Ma Zhou was surprised to see his wife hurried to the study and closed the official document in front of him.

There are three thousand acres of land on an island in Luzon in the South China Sea. Although this land is not small, it is not enough to make Mrs. Yan so happy. No matter how poor Ma Zhou was born as a scholar, he is now Zhongshu Ling and Duke of Yan. ,
Wu Yu'e was happy that Xiaosanlang Chengzhi was filial and had her as his aunt in his heart. He gave a village thousands of acres of land as a gift. It was so filial.

The female steward could not break the casserole and ask for the truth, so she had to pass the order. Wu Yu'e happily took the letter and went to the study to see her husband.

"Sanlang is already so capable at such a young age,"

"Madam, what happy event has happened?" The female steward was also Wu Yu'e's confidant. She knew that there was something fishy about today's matter. There must be a reason for everything to be abnormal.

"I heard that a cow fell down in Qujiang Village. I slaughtered the cow, pulled back the beef, and divided it into three parts. One part was sent to my eldest brother's house in Yong'an Fang, and the other part was sent to the second brother's house in Yong'an Fang. Bring back the remaining portion,"

"My second brother said that Sanlang still misses my aunt, so he specially gave me a village he seized from the rebels as a gift. The village is quite big, along the river and by the sea, with 3,000 acres of arable land. My second brother asked me to arrange a few trustworthy people to go there. When we get there, Sanlang will give us some slaves, and we can build a manor and grow sugarcane, cotton, or abaca..."

When I'm happy, fish maw stewed chicken seems to be of low quality, and I have to kill a cow and have a whole cow feast to be worthy of it.

"Alang, I plan to pick a few reliable stewards to go to Luzon immediately, bring more money and silk, buy more Kunlun slaves there, set up the village, and cultivate the three thousand acres of land. Rice, sugarcane, cotton, abaca,

Ma Zhou, the Duke of Yan State, is now in charge of the affairs of Zhongshu Province. His official duties are very busy and he is very thin. He suffers from diabetes. Fortunately, his brother-in-law Wu Huaiyu has superb medical skills. Although he cannot cure his condition, he can greatly improve it. Stay under control,

"Go quickly, what are you still doing?"

I haven’t heard that my cow in Zhuangzi, south of the city, fell. Even if it fell, the cow is still very precious. You must ask a veterinarian to treat it. Even if it doesn’t work, you have to report it to the government, and the government will send a butcher to slaughter the cow and collect the meat. .

In her heart, she also has special feelings for her natal family and her father and brother.

When I have free time, I will go there for a vacation and experience the summer beaches in the South China Sea. "

“Beef tendon meat is used to make five-spice braised beef, beef brisket is used to stew tomatoes, tenderloin is used to make stir-fried beef with chili peppers, beef nose is braised with green onions, beef ears are stir-fried, oxtail is braised, tripe shabu-shabu is used, beef whip is braised in red..."

"Well, I'm happy today." Wu Yu'e said.

"Erlang wrote a letter saying that our nephew Sanlang Chengzhi went to Luzon. He happened to encounter a rebellion by the native barbarians on a large island in Luzon. Sanlang led a thousand men to go out and succeeded in a battle. It was a great victory."

The first half of Wu Yu'e's life was rough. The most difficult time was when her father took her mother and daughter home. After Erlang returned home, he also cared about her as the eldest sister and specially introduced her to a reliable man like Ma Zhou.

The female steward was stunned when she saw Madam's excited look.

Ma Zhou, who had given up drinking for many years, now has no worsening of diabetes. Wu Huaiyu asked him to pay attention to his diet and have a good rest. However, as a confidant of the emperor, he was called Yanxu's generous man by the emperor. He was in charge of secrets, so he could not relax anymore.

Ma Zhou smiled,

He didn't care about this. His wife cared about her parents' family and had close contacts there, which he also felt was good. Ma Zhou was very grateful to the Wu family. He was so depressed that when he traveled to Guanzhong, he could not even pay the room fees for tourists. When he was most confused in his life, it was Wu Huaiyu who helped him.
He even took him to Longyou to fight,
He is now able to become the Duke of Yan by Zhongshu Ling. Of course, he has enough talent and learning, and it is also the emperor's special appreciation. But without Wu Huaiyu, he would not have the opportunity.
Even if he was able to secure a position in the court, it was because of the strong support of the Wu family, especially Wu Huaiyu.

"Sanlang's kid is really nice. It's a pity that he was engaged to the daughter of Xu Jingzong's family early. Otherwise, we could have promised our daughter to Sanlang, and it would be great to get married." Wu Yu'e sighed.

Ma Zhou put down his official duties,

Pick up a green glazed tea porcelain jar,
Lift the water to boil and make tea.

Boiling water over the purple clay tea set that Huzhou paid tribute to was a reward from the emperor.

Huzhou Yixing purple clay tea set, paired with Guzhu purple bamboo shoot tea produced in Huzhou,

The fragrance of tea overflows,

He handed a glass to his wife.

"Big brother has also done a good job in Hetao recently. The Turkic tribes in the north and south of Yinshan have been kept in check by big brother recently," Ma Zhou said.

Wu Yu'e smiled and said, "Huaiyi wrote a letter a few days ago, saying that he had sent us a batch of sheep, live sheep."

Wu Huaiyi was the governor of Yanran and the governor and governor of Fengzhou. His task was to build a defense line north of Beijing with Sanshou Jiangcheng as the core in Hetao for the imperial court.
Sanshoujiang City is the second line of defense.

Further north, to the north of Yinshan Mountain, there are six towns that serve as the first prominent line of defense.

Then there is the Great Wall defense line, which was the first line of defense in the early days of Zhenguan, and now it has been adjusted to the third line of defense.

Six towns in Yinshan, three cities in Hetao, plus the Great Wall constitute a three-line defense system. But at the end of the day, it has to be people.

The enemies of the Tang Dynasty in the north are no longer the Turks, but the Xueyantuo people. However, the Turks still have to be controlled. The establishment of the Yanran Protectorate is an adjustment of this strategic system.

There are many generals suitable for the position of Protector of Yanran.
But in the end it was Wu Huaiyi who left town. In fact, the controversy was still very big at first, but Wu Huaiyi had strong support behind him.

Many people are implicated.

Ma Zhou was also one of the supporters. He actually felt that Huaiyu was more suitable for that position than Huaiyi, but Huaiyu had talked to him personally and hoped that he could support it.

Now Wu Dalang's performance there can be said to be beyond everyone's expectations. Even the emperor admitted that Wu Huaiyi's performance was amazing.

The Monan DTZ tribes were all scattered after Jieli was captured in Chang'an. However, after Jieli, Tuli and others died of illness in recent years,

The various departments of DTZ became increasingly chaotic and disorderly.

They even don't listen to Chang'an's orders. In the past, the imperial court asked Li Simo and Zhi Shisili to manage the Monan Turkic tribes for the imperial court, but in recent years, the effect has been mediocre.

No powerful Turkic leader was willing to obey the orders of what they considered a bastard Husmo.

Under such circumstances, Wu Huaiyi left the town of Monan to protect Yanran and governor Fengzhou. As a result, his performance was extremely eye-catching and remarkable. In a short time, he built Sanshoujiang City.

This is not only the establishment of three military cities in the Hetao area, but relying on these three military cities, many castles were built to guard the towns and beacons, many soldiers were stationed in the towns, and many regiments were organized to train rural soldiers.

A place where Turks used to herd sheep,
Now it has become an extremely strong line of defense in the north.
A large number of border residents here immigrated to guard the border and cultivate wasteland.
Many border markets were set up, and trade with Turks, Jihu, Sogdians, etc. was booming.

This was not all smooth sailing. At first, many Turkic tribes refused to obey the rules. Some even pretended to be horse thieves and raided the border, robbing merchants and border residents.
Wu Huaiyi led his troops to conduct a sweep, and it took a short time to change the situation.

Kill some,
It shocked more people.

In the past, everyone thought that Wu Huaiyi was much worse than Wu Huaiyu. Without his brother Wu Huaiyu, Wu Huaiyi would have inherited his father's legacy from his father, and his achievements would have been just a brigade commander and captain of the Forbidden Army. It would be nice to wear a scarlet robe.

Wu Huaiyi became the governor of Shaozhou, the governor of Guangzhou, and even served as the Shaoqing of the Taifu and the Protector of Yanran. In the eyes of many people, it was because he had a very capable brother. Even his uncle, the warrior Xun, was the prime minister, and his brother-in-law Ma Zhou He is the prime minister, and only among the three prime ministers of the Wu family can he have a smooth career.

No matter how good his political achievements in Lingnan were, people still subconsciously attributed all these to Wu Huaiyu.

until now,

It didn't take Wu Huaiyi a long time in Hetao to not only sort out the situation and open up the situation, but also to keep all the tribes in DTZ in order. He even fought a battle with the Xue Yantuo people who went south to explore at Qikou. ,
They won the battle, and won beautifully. The Xueyantuo people suffered a huge loss and returned to Mobei in silence.

At this time, everyone felt that they had underestimated Wu Huaiyi before.

Ma Zhou has never underestimated Wu Huaiyi, his elder brother-in-law. Compared with his brother-in-law, his elder brother-in-law is more calm and has taken one step at a time along the way.

Ma Zhou could see every step of his uncle's steps and even predict his next move.

But he still couldn't understand Wu Huaiyu's thoughts.

He held the tea cup and took a sip.
"I heard news,"

"Some people say that Erlang is not recuperating in Lingao, Yazhou, and that he has never been sick at all,"

Wu Yu'e raised her eyebrows with a dissatisfied look on her face, "What do you mean, is there someone who wants to harm Erlang? Taking advantage of the fact that my fourth uncle died of illness and my Wu family has no one in the court, they want to add insult to injury?"

"Don't be angry,"

Ma Zhou comforted his wife, "Even if the fourth uncle dies, there will still be no one in the Wu family in the court. Aren't I still in the court as the prime minister? Xu Jingzong is also the Minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, not to mention that His Highness the Crown Prince is also a student of Erlang.
Duke Wei is the military god of the Tang Dynasty. Although he is not involved in political affairs now, he is still a true god even if he writes military books and amuses the beasts every day at his home in Pingkangfang. "

"No one would think of doing harm to Erlang, and even if they wanted to, no one would dare to take action now." Ma Zhou said bluntly.

"Then what's going on?"

"Erlang may have gone to Luzon. Just now you said that Sanlang went to Luzon to quell the native rebellion. The more I can conclude that Erlang must have gone to Luzon with Chengzhi. Now Erlang is determined to be in Luzon. Even that battle was commanded by Erlang. ”

Yu'e said worriedly, "Then there is this rumor coming out of Chang'an, is something going to happen?"

"Probably not."

"Where did you hear the news?"

"General Zuo Yulin Xu Luoren mentioned it to me," Ma Zhou told his wife.

Xu Luoren is General Zuo Yulin of the Beiya Imperial Army. He is from the third rank and is not very prominent. However, he is still the emperor's childhood friend. He has been accompanying the emperor since he raised his army. Xu Luoren has even been commanding the Baiqi Division. , which many people know.

Xu Luoren would definitely not tell him this casually, and Ma Zhou felt that the emperor might have asked him to reveal it.

But what is the emperor’s intention?

"Could it be that His Majesty knew that Erlang had gone to Luzon and was not very happy, so he asked Xu Luoren to tell you to let us say hello to Erlang and let him come back?" Wu Yu'e asked.

Ma Zhou sipped his tea,
He didn't quite understand some of his brother-in-law's actions in recent years, such as voluntarily leaving the center and even choosing Lingnan to stay.
Now he is focused on running the overseas business in Luzon.
Ma Zhou really couldn't guess what he was going to do.

"When you reply to Chengzhi's letter, you should treat it as a thank you for receiving the land in Luzon from him." Ma Zhou paused. "Send this letter to a trusted person in person and ask him to send a message to you. Xu Luoren conveyed what he said to me."

Ma Zhou believed that after receiving this message, Wu Huaiyu must know what happened and even know what to do.

(End of this chapter)